[buson160man]

Hi buson160man and Haoleb,

If you find fuse specifications out please let we know.

Thanks and Best regards,

Ruy
(Sorry about my english)

 Sorry it has been a long time but I finally gave in to my base instincts and opened up the teac unit to take a look at the inner workings of the dac. Frankly I was surprised at how substantial the build quality is on this unit for its modest cost. Even with its substantial end caps removed this unit is pretty heavy and very stoutly constructed for a unit that only retails for 849 usd. I also tried to locate a fuse within the unit. Damn if I can find one I did not see any fuse at least one that I can find within the unit. If there is a fuse in this unit teac did a great job concealing it. I saw another post with in this posting that said another person could not locate a fuse within the unit either. So I am not the only one who could not locate a fuse inside the well populated volume within this very substantially built unit. Damn I had hoped for a good bump in the units performance by upgrading the fuse but if there is no fuse that is not going to happen.
  The one thing that I can say about this unit after ten months of use that it definitely is at its best when you use the balanced outputs. The sound is decent from its single ended inputs but it performs  noticeably better when you use the balanced outputs.

 

[music_man]

it is a resistance shunt. in the front of the board where the iec is. you cannot replace it with a glass hi-fi fuse. not if you want to be safe. I replaced it with a circuit breaker. the circuit breaker has more copper contact that's all. I did not notice a difference in sound from that. a good power cord will make a difference and power conditioning will make a big difference. the internal regulation is surprisingly good for the price. beellson super powers  will make it a lot better. than you might as well do the op-amps and output caps too.

 

[jaytee61]

Does anyone know how a uber-frost thru usb2 would stack up against this DAC as I was just about to pull the trigger on the little schiit, but ran into the possibility to get one of these for about the same price as the schiit. The balanced outs, DSD capability would be nice but what I'm wanting to know more is what the sound signature is with this DAC. Whereas the Bifrost has been described as very "musical", curious to hear if anyone has compared the two..

 

[music_man]

well some people think I don't know shiit. so don't listen to me. my teac is not at all what you will be getting but is incredibly musical. even stock with reasonable cables I thought it was warm and fluid. not dark. it was a little fast and just a little harsh. now that all has changed. I think this thing is a platform. even with just good cables and regulated power it improves a lot. if you are getting any dac under $1,000usd it is not going to be perfect but the teac is good. the shiit is pretty good too. it's a toss up. depends which you like better. you really need to be able to listen to them. I always say we can talk about dacs all day but it depends what you like. reviews honestly mean nothing because different people have much different tastes.

 

[koiloco]

  well some people think I don't know shiit. so don't listen to me. my teac is not at all what you will be getting but is incredibly musical. even stock with reasonable cables I thought it was warm and fluid. not dark. it was a little fast and just a little harsh. now that all has changed. I think this thing is a platform. even with just good cables and regulated power it improves a lot. if you are getting any dac under $1,000usd it is not going to be perfect but the teac is good. the shiit is pretty good too. it's a toss up. depends which you like better. you really need to be able to listen to them. I always say we can talk about dacs all day but it depends what you like. reviews honestly mean nothing because different people have much different tastes.

Best thing you've said so far.  

 

[jaytee61]

Best thing you've said so far.  

That really was a very profound dissertation I must say. In all seriousness, thank you for that music man. I do realize that the teac is very modifiable. And I really like that you gave it a "musical" rating. What exactly are we talking about as far as beefing up the power supply. I've heard that with the right mods this unit is almost untouchable. I believe I've made up my mind. Next week, 501 time. Now I just gotta figure out if I want black or silver...hmmmm

 

[music_man]

the top power supply mod for it is belleson super powers.
 
I have said people really need to listen for themselves like a thousand times on head-fi. nothing new from me. I am steadfast on that belief. I may think something is the greatest thing since sliced bread. ten people might think that too. you might think it sucks! let's be honest with each other about something. this stuff is highly subjective. some things even much more so than others. I would not fault someone if they thought blue jeans is better than odin. not at all. in fact I would strongly advise to be very careful what you buy that it has a demo period. unless you have unlimited funds to just throw something away.
 
oh, jaytee I say get the silver. since the sides on the black are light silver anyways. black anodized aluminum looks nasty when it ages on anything. that is not so subjective lol.
 
I hope you two were not mocking me. I truly feel everyone has different opinions about audio. it is like when your wife says does this dress make me look fat. lol. you know what I mean? you can't answer that question correctly!
 
edit: I did not mean color preference was not subjective. it is highly. I meant black anodized aluminum does not tend to wear well. I think benchmarks are powder coated which fairs much better.  up to you of course!

 

[buson160man]

I have a silver unit and it looks just great.
 I also have to give music man his due. I have to say that what he says about personal tastes is what all this is about. Everyone has there own
likes and dislikes.
  If you can listen for yourself that is really the best and only method to judge  a product yourself.
 I really like products like the schiits and teacs (from the teac online outlet store) which allows you a trial period to check their products out.
By the way teac online outlet store offers the ud-501 for 749 usd  It is always nice when you can save some money.
  I think you will like the 501 it offers a lot of performance for its modest cost.

 

[jaytee61]

I appreciate the insight regarding the choices and in trying to make them. I have made my decision to get the silver 501. I have a older vintage yamaha silverface and my bottlehead has a silver top. So that wasn't too dificult. I'm going to order it up as soon as I get home today. Worse case is if I don't like it which I doubt, I'll sell it for something else. Shout out to music man and buson160 for the extra effort...By the way, what input are you guys using? Thanks again

 

[music_man]

thank you. I hate when people give the notion that if they don't like something no one should. if anyone actually does. I just always point out you have to listen. it does not mater what I or anyone else says.
 
if you order it new consider music direct. see if they will give you a 10% discount. depends if that salesman is in a good mood.
 
the balanced outputs on this are much better than the rca's. the rca';a and headamp are not bad. the balanced even stock puts it up against a lot of other more expensive dacs. I prefer to use coax from a transport. since I got this I am using usb with my dvd drive as the source. I convert pcm to dsd. apparently it will do 8x dsd. I had written an asio driver but it seems to work with the foo driver too. jriver only goes to 2x but the foo driver can force it to 8x. if you like this sound I think you would have to spend a few thousand usd to get substantially better. if you are open to modding it and good cables with balanced power it is nearly as good as anything. again, if you like this sound. however modified it sounds completely different. the power regulators will preserve the stock sound and improve it a lot. change the op-amps and caps it is a different sound. along the same lines just even better.

 

[koiloco]

I appreciate the insight regarding the choices and in trying to make them. I have made my decision to get the silver 501. I have a older vintage yamaha silverface and my bottlehead has a silver top. So that wasn't too dificult. I'm going to order it up as soon as I get home today. Worse case is if I don't like it which I doubt, I'll sell it for something else. Shout out to music man and buson160 for the extra effort...By the way, what input are you guys using? Thanks again

+1 Personally, I don't think you will regret your decision.  I haven't!

 

[jaytee61]

Well it's setup and been listening for a few hours. Hard to tell when this is my first dedicated DAC that I've ever owned. When compared to using just the MAC's DAC there is no comparison. A clear and obvious improvement. My system is IMAC 2010>UD501 via cheapo USB cable>Soon to be Speedballed Crack>HD650 (stock cables). Used this way, should the Teac always display PCM 384khz. I also get a random drop out on almost every song played but only once per song played from either a redbook disc or a MP3 file. Not really much to try changing in the menu when it's inputting at 384khz. Trying to learn and optimize. Thanks in advance for any feedback.

 

[koiloco]

^ Gratz!  I never have any skipping problem using USB.  Check your computer setting and driver.  Did you get the latest driver from TEAC site?

 

[jaytee61]

No I didn't. I just plugged and played. No patience I guess. I'll check that out. I also noticed that on this MAC I'm running OS 10.5.8. I think I need to upgrade that too. I have it. Just haven't done it. Well I know what I'll be doing this weekend...Thanks for the info koiloco

 

[music_man]

you need to change the latency for the usb driver. don't know how on a mac. get a Belkin gold usb cable.$15. very good cable. junk cable can cause issues too. you can also adjust the output sampling rate. again, don't know on mac.